Gift
by kuro mirai
Summary: RenxKyoko. Future Fic. It was a very hectic Christmas season and she was just finishing her Christmas shopping list. It was odd, but people seem to be more festive this Christmas. Or could it be just her?


**Gift**

**kuro mirai**

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Skip Beat. Though I wish I did. I really do.

**Pairing**: RenxKyoko.

_Because I was impatient to get to the RenxKyoko pairing right away, this is a future fic. This was supposed to focus on Christmas. I don't know what the hell happened._

_

* * *

_

She watched the people around her, who milling about in a frenzy. They kept coming and going, making on-the-spot decisions and flinging items around, searching and hunting for last minute gifts. This was the Christmas season, and everything was in a flurry of activity. People were making and rechecking lists and ensuring that everything was in place, taking last minute considerations.

She was seated in a table outside the coffee shop, resting her weary self. The mall was packed with buyers and couples and last minute shoppers. Tonight was Christmas Eve. Everyone was excitable, agitated and in a hurry to get back to their families and lovers, to prepare for this one special night.

She mused on her jobs this day, which had just ended three hours prior. She barely had enough time to make her own last minute shopping. Right before Christmas Eve too! Thankfully, the mall had a gift wrapping service for buyers, which she took much advantage of. There were only a few more gifts that she had needed to buy today. All others (more important) have been wrapped, prepared and ready to be given weeks prior.

Today, the company was hosting a Christmas party that would go on well into the morning of Christmas day. The President had decided to take the reins for the party, wanting to give the two young girls who started what had become an annual celebration a break. Though truthfully, she thought it had something more to do with their propensity to shoot down any suggestion the President have made for an over-the-top celebration than wanting to give the girls a break.

The President had wanted to do an African Safari Christmas theme, on a white snow-capped mountain scene with elephants wearing red velvet, liger hybrids that had naturally red hair and dark green stripes (how he managed that was something of a mystery, she was steel reeling from the mystery of the President having ligers) and servants wearing leopard spots in forest green and red. His granddaughter on the other hand, wanted a Christmas wonderland theme, with real snow and a castle made of ice.

She balked on their ideas, but agreed with the little girl on a Christmas wonderland theme. They could not have had allowed animals to roam around in the room where there were going to be tons of food and guests around, and she could not bear it if the animals were tied down. As trained as they were, and despite the fact that the animals would have handlers, it would still have been dangerous for the guests. Moreover, while the guests would have had probably already been acclimated to the eccentricities of the President, there would have been still some concerns.

The President compromised, and they settled on a Christmas Wonderland in Africa theme. There was going to be a snow capped mountain with a large ice castle on top. They were foregoing the animals, which meant that the elephants and the ligers would have to spend their Christmas in the jungles of the Takarada's estate. But the President insisted that Natsuko-chan be present. She agreed so long as she stayed on his person. Maria didn't really care, as she was bringing her prized tarantulas with her to scare potential victims, whether anyone objected or not.

She smiled a little at her thoughts. The President still allowed them to help out, but not more than necessary. They were Santa's little helpers (the President's words), during the initial stages of the preparation. She and Maria, along with the other two veteran former Love-Me members, who were recruited by the President, worked on the Chrisrmas Party, and were forced to wear Santa's elves outfits during the whole time.

She handled the food, Maria commandeered the decorations, Kotonami Kanae and Amamiya Chiori took care of the guest list. Yesterday, the President had called them in and told them, in terms that warranted no objections, that they were relieved from their jobs so that they would have the whole day to prepare for the party.

So now, here she was.

She had an interview at a daytime variety show, so she had to be at the studio at 9 in the morning to prepare. The show took at 10 but she had stayed until 11 socializing with the cast and the crew for their impromptu, mini celebratory Christmas lunch. She ate as much as she socialized with the other guests, cast and crew members, so she was pretty tired afterwards.

Then she had to go to a photo shoot for her newest project. They were going to start filming the project immediately after the New Year, and the schedules of the cast were pretty much tangled up in different obligations that they could not find a later date to hold the photo shoot, without sacrificing valuable filming time. So the photo shoot had to held at a much earlier date.

After the shoot, she finally had time to prepare for the party. Her schedule had been too full for the past two weeks, that she had only been able to find time today to get the remaining gifts she had on the list. Luckily, she had been able to reserve them days prior. The shop did not allow pre-orders to be made, and the delivery service was on a hiatus due to the heavy influx of requests for the Christmas holidays. It took her three hours to get the job done. Normally, she would not have had waited until the very last minute to get the gifts, but it could not be helped.

Her Christmas shopping list finally finished, she stopped to take a rest at the small café. The mall was packed with people. Employees in Santa suits and Christmas-themed uniform milled about taking their breaks. Shopping alone was a hassle and dangerous, especially if she had been found out. The fact is, she could not take her manager today, nor was anyone else available to go with her. It was of no consequence because she really didn't like to bother other people anymore than necessary.

But she had been reprimanded enough times about her popularity and status as an icon in the entertainment world and the dangers that come with it that it had stuck. Because of that, she had to resort to using disguises to hide her identity. Otherwise, she would have been mobbed on the streets alone. She knows she can make passable disguises, with help. When she played Setsu, nobody ever knew or had any inkling it was her. She could play a role and blend in with the crowd, if necessary. Which was what she had done today.

Of course, she did acknowledge that the President would chew her and spit her out or outright kill her if he found out. As eccentric as he was, he was very much protective of his talents.

But one other man would be ahead of the President in the line to chastise her for her actions. Now that she thought about it, there would be a line of people who would be worried for her. 'Moko-san!' She thought to herself dreamily.

Lately, the people around her had gotten more protective. And worried.

It wasn't like she was in any danger. She was in fact, in perfect health, according to her valued doctor's opinion. To her chagrin, her family and friends didn't seem to value the doctor's opinion very much, as indicated by their protectiveness and worry.

A lot of people had been giving her some sort of royal treatment. Even while working on the Christmas party, the chefs and other employees were giving her a wide berth, and making sure she had everything she wanted. They've also been helping her a lot. Which was odd, because she was the one who was supposed to be helping *them*. Everyone was being considerate, excited and full of happy tidings. It was as if Christmas came early for them.

The work she did with them was enjoyable. She researched the new recipes and reinvented old ones with the help of the head chef and inputs of the other chefs that she (and consequently every other chefs too), were sure that this year's Christmas feast was going to be a popular topic during the holidays.

The LME's employees were likewise, just as excited and happy. Everyone's been giving out well-wishes. It makes her happy to think of them. People were being very kind and festive this Christmas, truly embodying the Christmas spirit. The President's exuberance was certainly making its impact.

_It's somewhat different this year. _She thinks. The other years had always seemed so faked, as if commercialized and scripted. Sure there where wishes for a festive holiday, but more often than not, she thought that they seemed to be full of pretenses and often, a lot of posturing.

She felt giddy and wonderful. She felt the same from everyone else too.

She wondered if it had to do with her stomach.

Well, she had eaten a lot at the impromptu lunch party at the studio. _Maybe it was time to cut down on her eating?_ She thought -san and Chiori-san had lamented much about their increased food-intake these past few weeks, more so once they had started preparing for the annual party. Whenever she could, she had asked her friends for opinion on the new recipes. It ended in Moko-san and Chiori-san avoiding her for almost a week now. Maria readily agreed to be her taste tester, and had contributed her own recipes (most of which were subsequently labeled for Maria's personal use only).

A familiar tune startled her out of her thoughts. She should have been used to it by now, but she still had problems remembering that she had a phone, and yes that tune came from her phone. She was a bit embarrassed as she watched people look at her immediate vicinity while she looked around looking for the source of the sound, before remembering it was coming from her own bag.

She fished the phone from her bag and opened it, smiling a little at what she saw, before holding it to her ear. She listened to the speaker on the other side for a little while, before replying and assuaging the other on her health. She mentioned that she will be returning home soon, and that no, there was no need to worry about her transportation home, so there was no need to bother. She could manage on her own after all. She listened again after a few minutes, before becoming flustered at the other person's guess that she was on her own, and the slight chastisement that followed through. She could imagine the tiny pout and the slighted look at the other person's face through the phone. She winced, a little guilty, before agreeing to take up the other person's offer to bring her home and giving out her location.

She closed her phone and stuffed it inside her bag, ordering another drink from a busboy. After a few minutes, the busboy returned with her iced tea and set it in front of her half-finished tart. She returned to her food, waiting for the other to arrive and take her home.

She was picking up her drink when she was startled by a hand on her shoulder. She panicked before relaxing at the familiar scent that invaded her nose. She turned her head to look at the person's face before breaking out into a smile.

He was dressed casually, in dark jeans and a forest green shirt. He had on a pair of eyeglasses, and a hat. She let out a snicker behind her glass at his attempt at disguise. He would have worn dark sunglasses, but they were inside a mall, so he had forgone them and went with framed, ungraded glasses. It wasn't much of a disguise, truth to be told, and she can't believe it had actually worked, but she chalked it up to the fact that people would have never thought to put Tsuruga Ren and eyeglasses in the same sentence. It just didn't fit. Somehow, the eyeglasses gave him a somewhat nondescript persona (somewhat because he was just tall enough to ever be nondescript).

He gave her a wry grin as he stopped in front of her, aware of the thoughts that were going through her head. He'd heard enough of that over the years from his own manager to know when they were internally laughing at his awkward attempts at disguising himself.

Despite that, he was glad that she was in high spirits. He knew her schedule. His manager had been beside himself with worry that she was turning out to be like him with regard to her work ethics. He had to admit, even he was worried, but then, he had always been so. Work was work and rest time was rest time. While he had no problems working through his rest time, he couldn't say the same for her. It made him quite the hypocrite, but he wouldn't change that for anything. She was the same way after all. He didn't know if it was a good thing or not. However, that was what their managers were there for.

"Are you ready to go home?" He asked when she put down her drink. She nodded and checked her belongings while he took all her shopping bags. She would have protested, but one look from him and she acquiesced.

"Honestly, would you let me help out? That's a lot of bags" She earned another look, and a dangerous smile.

"You know how we all explicitly told you that you shouldn't be out on your own, especially doing something like shopping the day before Christmas. How do you think we would have felt if something happened to you and no one is there to help?" That smile was so blindingly bright she couldn't help but take a step back. Years spent being exposed to this and she still felt weak, with her demons gasping in agony. In fact, the effect of this smile was even scarier than before.

She nodded weakly and became flustered. She instinctively wanted to do a dogeza, but he stopped her with a hand to her arm before she could even move. She wondered if he had somehow become a psychic who could either see into the future or hear her thoughts. It wouldn't have surprised her.

The smile was on full force. "There's no need for that. We would be wasting time, and you still need to prepare for the party tonight. You wouldn't want to be late would you? This is after all, the party you worked very much on. It wouldn't do for one of the main organizers to be late."

Evil. Pure evil.

She could only readily agree. Anymore argument would have caused her some sanity. This was the demon king. It was apparent that he was still mad for the whole being alone thing after all.

They walked quietly towards the parking area. She was a little nervous, and was peeking at him, wondering at his reaction. She saw him sigh, and guilt welled up in her. She did agree to always have someone with her. He looked at her and saw her face, before sighing again. He motioned her to stop at a nearby bench and made her sit, before setting down the shopping bags beside them. He leaned close to her, smiling softly.

"Kyoko, I'm just being worried."

"I know," She said hesitantly "But, it's not as if something is going to happen to me. I'm quite healthy you know, the doctor said so! And sure, I might get mobbed, but it's not something I should worry about. I can handle a few fans. They're not so bad now really. They're actually being very considerate."

He shook his head before smiling at her explanation. "It's not the fans I'm worried about."

Her face took on a confused expression, before she tilted her head to the side. "It's not?"

_Really,_ he thought, _sometimes she can just be so dense_. He shook his head "No," his hand immediately went to her huge stomach, "I, and everyone else, is more worried that you're exerting yourself too much. And your due date is only weeks away, so everyone wants you to take it more easily or you and the baby could get hurt."

"Oh." She smiled. "Well, why didn't you say so?"

Sometimes, he forgets that while she could be perceptive about a lot of things, she could be just as unaware. He wouldn't have her in any other way though. He gave a small laugh, understanding that she finally got what they were really concerned about. She'd be more receptive to their worries now.

She was safe, and that was all that really mattered to him.

He took her hand and helped her up. This time, she didn't bother with the shopping bags and fell into a pace right beside him as they resumed their walk to the car, the mood light as they conversed about their day.


End file.
